Unmanned aerial vehicle system and methods for use

ABSTRACT

A drone equipped with a camera, a wireless communication module, an acoustic sensor, a GPS receiver, software and collapsible floatation device patrols above swimmers. The camera and acoustic sensor capture the video and audio of the swimmers. The information is either streamed to a command center or processed by the onboard software. With audio and video analysis capabilities, software is used to detect a swimmer in distress (SID). Alternatively the information is streamed to lifeguard or volunteers all over the world to spot SID. Another detection method is to let swimmer wear a wearable emergency notification device, which sends wireless signals comprising GPS location data. A SID presses a button to indicate rescue request and the drones fly over by GPS signal guidance. Solar power is used as the optional power source of the drones, which would allow the to sustain operation for a prolonged period of time. Once a SID is identified, the drone or drones fly over the SID and drops the collapsible floatation device.

CROSS-REFERENCE

Priority is claimed from the U.S. Provisional Patent Application No.62/163,461, entitled “System for monitoring, searching and rescuingswimmers using drones”, filed on May 19, 2015; the U.S. ProvisionalPatent Application No. 62/242,985, entitled “System for monitoring,searching and rescuing swimmers using drones”, filed on Oct. 16, 2015;the U.S. Provisional Patent Application No. 62/184,234, entitled“Methods and apparatuses for combining a drone, a tether and devices”,filed on Jun. 24, 2015; the U.S. Provisional Patent Application No.62/167,388, entitled “APPARATUS FOR DISPLAYING AND BROADCASTING FROMMIDAIR”, filed on May 28, 2015; entirety of which are herebyincorporated by reference.

BACKGROUND

1. Field of the Invention

The present invention relates generally to aircrafts, and morespecifically, to an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) system and method ofuse.

2. Description of Related Art

Every year there are thousands of swimmers and water sports participantsdrowned in the world. Traditionally the swimming places are monitored byhuman lifeguards. They also serve as rescuers whenever a swimmer is introuble. US National Life Saving Statistics shows that in 2014, therewere 242 million attendances in beach, and there were 52,627 rescues and4 million preventive actions. There were 60 drowning deaths. Worldwidethese numbers are substantially higher.

A successful rescue by a human lifeguard relies on first of all,discovering the SID, secondly the time it takes for the lifeguard to getclose to the SID, and lastly, it depends on the skill of the life guard.Each step is sequentially dependent, and each step is inferior to adrone lifeguard. For instance, discovering is typically by human'seyesight compared to drone's camera and multiple detection methods.Human lifeguard has to swim to the SID at an average speed of 2 MPHcompared to drone's unfettered speed up to 30-50 MPH or even higher inthe future. Human lifeguard is inefficient and sometimes even put thelifeguard in harm's way. In addition, the cost of human lifeguard is oneof the main reasons why oftentimes there is no human lifeguard at all inmany beaches and swimming pools.

Access to the swimmer in danger (SID) is carried out by swimming.Rescuing is by connecting the SID with a floatation device or with thelifeguard. These methods are inefficient and sometimes even put thelifeguard in harm's way. In addition, the difficulties to rescue someonefar away from shore is even more difficult. Another hazard is theswimming pools in residential areas which claimed many young lives overthe years. The various embodiments of the present invention intend tomake lifeguarding automated from monitoring, searching to rescuing.

Man-overboard (MOB) has been a problem for ships ever since thebeginning of water transportation. Today some of the challenges facingthe navy ships and the crews are:

Detection—Detection is typically done by one or more dedicated humanlookouts. It relies on human eyeballs, which is not always reliable andavailable, especially during night time. It also requires training andstaffing for lookout posts.

Searching—Even if an MOB incident has been detected, sometimes it ishard to locate that MOB. Typically a binocular or a helicopter would beused to locate. ‘All hands on deck’ practice reduces the capability ofthe ship during searching.

Rescuing—A lifeline or a floatation device is thrown at the MOB if theMOB is close to the ship. If the MOB is farther away from the ship, theship has to sail back and to be steered toward to the MOB, which isdangerous and may not be practical in battlefield. The MOB is hard toidentify at sea. A helicopter sometime is dispatched to carry out themission. But that diverts the helicopter's other objectives and alsoposes danger to the rescue crews on the helicopter.

Dangers facing the MOB—The time element is critical in saving the MOB.Drowning could happen within minutes if the MOB has no lifejacket.Hypothermia could kick in 20 minutes after staying in seawater.

Drills—MOB drilling is a routine drill, which requires all hands ondeck. This is a huge cost and burden.

Existing projectors could project images onto a surface for humanviewers to see. However, the object that the surface belongs to needs tobe supported by a structure or needs to be rigid so its weight could beborne. It restricts the availability of such surface. In addition, aprojector has to be supported by another structure as well, such as adesk top or a tripod. In some scenarios, people need to view videos orimages without being restricted by the needs for a structure to supportthe weight of the screen or the projection source. There has been hardlypossible for people to view a movie or an advertisement commercialanywhere they want. A fixed screen attached to a structure thatultimately is supported by the ground is needed. In emergency response,such as an earth quake, sometimes the only reliable broadcasting tool isradio, which lacks video capability.

Moving an object to a target location is a common task. But sometimesthe target location is hard to reach by conventional means. Machinerycould be too expensive or inconvenient for the circumstance.

One example is for a sea going vessel to send an object to anothervessel or to a dock. At the same time the vessel must keep a safedistance from the another vessel to avoid collision. Traditionallysending an object over is done by throwing a rope or cable by acrewmember from the vessel. The practice has been like that forthousands of years, which has the problem of limited range and accuracyinherent with a human throw.

Another example is a person being stranded in a tall building in a firebreakout. Sometimes it is hard to reach that person by ladder or ahelicopter. There are very few other rescuing options.

Drones are great in flying to a desired target location, but the payloadof a commercial drone like a quadcopter is limited, typically notexceeding ten pounds, which is not sufficient for moving an object or acable over that weight limit.

Picking up dog waste or trash in streets could be a headache. Manydevices have been designed to that end, but they are not automated.Their usefulness is therefore limited. More generally, there aresituations some objects need to be manipulated but the location of theobject is hard to reach, such as putting nails on roofs.

Airborne object has the risk of falling down on ground which woulddamage property or injure people. This is especially problematic for anunmanned aerial vehicle (UAV). Some attempts were made to mitigate therisk. For instance, U.S. Pat. No. 6,471,160 presented a solution to puta parachute on the UAV when there is a falling risk. However, the designonly partially addressed the problem of speed reduction but not theimpact mitigation. Some moving parts such as the motor blades might bestill a hazard to people even the parachute has been deployed. Inaddition, there is a certain height requirements for deploying theparachute.

Accordingly, although great strides have been made in the area of UAVtechnology, many improvements remain.

BRIEF SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

An embodiment of the present invention uses drones, or flying robotsequipped with floatation devices, camera, microphone, communicationmodule, GPS receiver, and software to improve the current lifeguardpractice.

One or more drones are flown over the beach or the water area where theswimmers are. Each drone is responsible for a relatively fixed area ofthe water surface to monitor. Each drone is either stationary in midairor in circular motion. The camera on a drone takes real time videos orpictures of the water surface below. The microphone picks up acousticsignals. In one embodiment, the swimmer has a portable emergencynotification device. The notification device has a wireless transmitterfor sending wireless signals to notify the UAV. In some embodiments, thewireless signals comprise GPS geo-coordinate information for identifyingthe location of the swimmer. The UAV's onboard communication sensor isable to pick up the signals containing GPS information from thenotification device directly or indirectly. In some embodiments, thewireless signals work like a radio beacon for the UAV to home in. Thereare three primary methods to detect SID. They can be used in conjunctionor separately in a variety of embodiments of the present invention,which will be elaborated later in the disclosure.

Once a SID is detected, the drone is directed by the command center, orautomatically by its own software to fly over the SID and rescue.Typically a group of drones fly over a swath of water area to monitorand rescue swimmers. As a group, the drones swarm to the SID if there isone being detected, and each drone drops its floatation device tomaximize the floatation device availability to the SID. The drones areconnected to a command center wirelessly to share intelligence andcoordinate movements. The height of the drones should be appropriate,from several feet to hundreds of feet, depending on the tasks andconditions. If the collapsible flotation device is to be released from adrone, then an appropriate height should be kept to allow the floatationdevice to land as close as possible to the SID.

The collapsible flotation device is made by lightweight and buoyantmaterials, such as Styrofoam. It is carried by a drone. The floatationdevice is collapsible by spring hinges in between multiple panels. Thereare other methods of making the floatation device collapsible, such asself air-pumping life ring similar to an airplane floatation jacket. Therelease of the floatation device is either triggered by the commandcenter or by the drone itself, depending on different configurations.The self-release mechanism has a variety of choices.

In one embodiment, the floatation device is an automatic inflatablelifevest. The life vest inflates by itself upon touch water. There is acompressed gas canister connected to a sealed life vest. Similarproducts exist such as ONYX® A/M-24 Deluxe Automatic Manual InflatableLife Jacket. The drone carries such life vest and releases upon arrivalat the SID location.

In one embodiment, a pod or a housing is being fastened to the body ofthe UAV. A door is installed at the bottom of the pod, and could beopened to allow the content inside the pod to drop out. The life vestcould be store inside the pod. When the UAV arrives at its destination,the door could be opened and the life vest is dropped from the pod. Thedoor opening mechanism is controlled by a computer controlled servo.When the computer instructs the servo to move, the servo could latch oropen the door.

In yet another embodiment, the pod design could be improved so that itcould avoid the content inside being stuck during release. When the dooris opened, a pushing rod inside the pod could push the content downward.The pushing rod is activated by a computer controlled servo.

In one embodiment, when the floatation device is released, a line isconnected to the floatation device. In some circumstances, thefloatation device may not be exactly dropped to the hands of the SID,the UAV could move in mid air and drag the line so that the floatationdevice could be moved to the hands of the SID. Then the line could besevered, or one end of the line could be brought by the UAV to anotherlocation. To control the tension of the line, one method is to put theend of the line on a reel, and the reel is fastened to the UAV and couldbe controlled to reel the line. This accurate delivery method using lineand reel could also be used in other payload delivery.

In yet another embodiment, the UAV carries a device, which could be arobotic device, a mechanical device, or any other device. The devicecould be released once the UAV reaches its destination having a lineconnected between the UAV and the device. One end of the line is spooledonto a reel. The reel could be fastened to the UAV or the device itself.A computer controls the reel's reeling motion. Controlling the speed ofthe line being released from the reel equates to controlling the releasespeed of the device. Therefore the device need not be in free fall,which is safer and more accurate. Furthermore, the UAV could maneuver inmid air so that the line could drag the device to its desireddestination with more accuracy. The line could be severed after thedevice is delivered to its destination.

The three primary methods of detecting a SID are: audio/video signalanalysis, human monitoring, and wireless signal form a wearable deviceworn by a swimmer. There are other methods for detecting SID as well.

A drone captures real time video/audio feed of the swimmers. In oneembodiment, the video and audio signals are transmitted wirelessly tothe remote information processing center, or the command center. Thesoftware at the command center is capable of detecting SID by analyzingthe videos or images, in conjunction with audio analysis. Most SID hasdistinct patterns of moving of his or her body parts. For instance, aSID may wave arms violently, and the head may appear submerged in thewater. There may be audio signal like ‘Help!’ from the SID or peoplearound him. The audio signal processing software first establishes humanvoice baseline in that particular swimming environment. It is typicallythe average frequency and decibel level over a period of time. Then thesoftware tries to distinguish any deviation from that baseline. When aswimmer or someone else yelps “Help”, the frequency and decibel level,as well the voice recognition are used to identify as a potential rescuesignal. In addition, the location of the yelp is also detected in threeways. One is from drone group location triangulation.

Each drone from the swamp picks up different level and direction ofvoice source, and the software is able to deduce the approximatelocation of the sound source. Another way is to equip a drone withdirection sensitive microphone to locate the source of the voice. Thethird way is to make the drone change positions swiftly to identify thesource of the rescue request sound. The video signals are analyzed todetect a typical SID body movement. The frequencies of arm movements aswell as the position of the arms of a SID are very different from thoseof other swimmers. Image processing software is able to detect thedifferences. The software tracks every swimmer's head position. The headof a SID tends to be moving up and down close to the water level. Inaddition, the body of a SID tends to be straight up in the water, whichis different from a normal swimmer. There are other clues that thesoftware can capture and analyze to determine a SID.

Human monitoring is the second method of detection of a SID. Theaudio/video feed is monitored by either on-duty lifeguards or otherpeople who care. In one embodiment, the audio/video feed is livestreamed through internet and accessible by ordinary citizens orvolunteers around the world though a web page. Many volunteers arewilling to spend their time for monitoring and saving swimmers as probono effort. Once a volunteer spots a likely SID, a notification is sentby him or her to the command center for rescuing attempt.

The third method is to use waterproof emergency notification device wornby the swimmers. If a swimmer feels in distress, he simply presses abutton of the device. The device transmits rescue signal wirelesslyeither directly to the drones or to the command center, with GPSinformation of the swimmer.

The drones receive the rescue request directly or from the commandcenter, along the GPS information. A drone is equipped with GPS receiverthat guides it to fly over the specific geo-coordinates indicated by therescue request signals. Further, the drone could rely on its onboardcamera to capture the images of the target, and use that image as thedestination guidance for home-in. A combination of GPS and image basedhome-in can be utilized to maximize the accuracy of target locating.

The present invention includes a lifeguard drone system to detect,search, rescue and retrieve in a man-overboard incident. Our system isstationed on a ship and surveils the nearby water surface with infraredcameras. Once a man-overboard (MOB) situation is detected, the lifeguarddrone flies out of a housing. It then homes in toward the man-overboard,and hovers directly above the MOB upon reaching the MOB location. Afloatation device such as an inflatable tube is released from thedrone's payload for the MOB to hold onto. Furthermore, by delivering aspecially designed fishing line payload to the MOB, retrieving the MOBbecome as easy as reeling in a fish without requiring the ship to sailback or change course. The system is largely automated.

The system may have considerable advantages compared to existingsolutions: (1) Expeditious detection, search, rescue and retrieval of anMOB, cutting time by at least 75% (e.g. detection is done automaticallyin a couple of seconds; the drone flies 3,000 feet in a minute). Greatlyimproves the survival rate of the MOB. (2) Reducespersonnel/training/drilling/costs by at least 50%. (3) Drasticallyreduces the danger for the MOB, rescue crews and the ship. (4)Autonomous or semi-autonomous, 24/7 availability. (5) ‘Swiss army knife’type of payloads for easy swap in and out of the drone, which couldcarry and drop other rescue equipment: e.g. a thermal unit to fighthypothermia, a radio (optional) for immediate communication, a sea dyemarker, a fishing line spool for retrieval and etc. (6) The drone sendslive video stream back to the people on duty (optional). (7) The dronehovers above the drowning person to give a clear indication of thewhereabouts of the target. (8) The drone carries a mega phone, whichcould talk directly to the MOB. (9) Identifies man-overboard by passivemeans to keep radio emission control (EMCON).

An embodiment of the invention comprises a UAV and a loudspeakerfastened the to body of the UAV. The loudspeaker is connected to awireless communication module. Alternatively the loudspeaker could beplaying sound from a memory medium that is connected to the loudspeaker.The wireless communication module or the memory medium is onboard theUAV. The loudspeaker plays the sound it receives wirelessly while thedrone is airborne. The loudspeaker draws power from a batter that isbeing carried by the UAV.

One simplified method is to connect a cellular phone or a cellular phonemodule to the loudspeaker. By dialing that cellular phone's numberanywhere, a user could connect to the cellular phone, whose sound outputis sent to the loudspeaker to be amplified. It is useful in crowdcontrol, emergency response, search and rescue missions, and other usecases.

Some loudspeaker has strong magnet which potentially could interferewith the UAV's navigation system. A magnetic shield sometime is appliedbetween the loudspeaker and the UAV navigation system. There are manychoices for accomplishing this shielding effect. For instance, a metalsheet or foil could be used to minimize the magnetic interference.

Further, a microphone might be also fastened to the body of the UAV forpicking up sound signals from the environment. Noise cancellationtechnique could be employed to reduce the interference from thepropellers of the UAV. The sound signal could be transmitted wirelesslyvia a wireless communication module onboard the UAV to a remotedestination.

An embodiment of the disclosed invention uses drones, or flying robots,or unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) carrying video projection equipment,audio equipment, communication module, and fly control module to projectvideo images or a still image onto natural or man made surfaces forpeople to view. One or more drones are used to spread a screen in midair so that video images or a still image could be projected thereon.

The drone that is able to project images, or “Projecting Drone” (or“PD”) projects light, a still image or video images. The video or imagecontent source comprises an onboard storage medium, or wireless signals.The control of the PD's position in 3-D space and flight parameters suchas speed and bearing are either from PD's onboard software or wirelesslytransmitted instructions. In some embodiments of the present invention,speaker is installed on the PD to accompany the video or images.

The video projecting functionality is accomplished in a number of ways.In some embodiments, a video projector is fastened to the body of adrone. In other embodiments, a drone integrates all or parts of thefunctionalities of a typical projector, comprising lens, light sourceand the necessary circuitry. In yet another embodiment, the drone isequipped with mirror or other reflective devices to reflect lightsources from other places.

The images of the video are projected onto man made or natural surfacessuch as building surfaces and ground.

In one embodiment, one or more other drones are used to spread a screenin mid-air, and in later description one such drones are referred as‘Screen Spreading Drone”, or SSD. Drones are flown to desired positionfor the screen to be spread. Each drone is fastened to a portion of thescreen, either directly or through connecting components such astethers. The forces exerted by the drones make the screen spread.Because the drones are able to exert forces in different directions, thespread of the screen is made easier. The force may come from themovement of the drones' bodies, or from onboard components of thedrones, such as reels reeling the tethers, and the rotating wings. Thereel that reels the tethers connecting a drone and the screen is drivenby either a motor or spring, and is onboard the drone. The reel isautomatically adjusted for the tension it asserts on the tether to keepthe screen from unwanted movement. The PD or video devices from otherplaces project images onto the screen for people to view. The size ofthe screen varies, depending on factors such as the coverage area, thecontent, the angle of the screen with respect to the ground, the height,the brightness of the video and ambient brightness. The screen is thesurface of an object, which takes a variety of geometry forms comprisingflat, warped, spherical or any geometric form. In addition, the viewingarea, which a viewer can see, could be in any shape, such as circular,rectangular or any other shape. The viewers could be situated anywhere,such as indoors or outdoors, on the ground, in the water or even in midair themselves. In one embodiment, an enclosure pumped with air or otherlightweight gases is tethered with the SSDs, and its surface is used asa screen for image display.

The SSDs and PD are coordinated for synchronized motions in midair. Thescreen could be turned, moved, or in other types of motions as a resultof the motions of SSDs. Likewise the PD moves to project images fromdifferent angle, height, distance to a surface. The motions createsophisticated viewing effect on the surface. In some embodiments, themovements of the drones are from the flight command sent from a commandcenter, while in some other embodiments, the movements are from thedrones' onboard software. In some embodiments, the drones are equippedwith GPS location devices that allow them to know the current positionas well as future expected positions. In some other embodiments, thedrones know their relative positions with each other as a group bywireless communication and algorithms.

The apparatus or a group of apparatuses is used for entrainment,advertisement, public broadcasting, and emergency broadcasting. Theapparatus is suitable both for indoor and outdoor use. There is nospecific requirement for ambient light, although generally lower ambientlight works better for video images.

The apparatus can be deployed in minutes in places where there is nodisplay or screen, or no voice broadcast system.

The apparatus is ideal for a group of viewers to view. The content ofthe video/audio could be, but certainly not limited to, entertainment,advertisement, broadcasting, or emergency announcement or instructions.

In large-scale disasters, or riot scenario, a group of such apparatusescould be sent in the sky for the people to view the video or images. Itwould be a powerful disaster relief tool as well as peacekeeping tool.

Some embodiments of the invention are suitable for advertising otherwisehard to deliver, such as outdoors environments where it is traditionallydifficult to set up screen and projectors. It takes a lot less effort topresent to people using some of the embodiments of the presentinvention.

Traffic control traditionally uses billboards. It suffers the mobility,cost, information density, and availability issues. Some of theembodiments of the invention are used in midair with detailed guidanceinstructions for the traffic.

One embodiment of the present invention has an inflatable airbagssecured around the airborne object, for instance, a UAV. A sensor isable to detect imminent falling, and sends a control signal to deploythe air bag. The sensor could be any combination of an accelerometer, analtitude meter, or GPS receiver. In addition, the airbag could beactivated by user instruction or software instruction. The air bag wouldbe deployed in mid air before the object touches the ground. The air bagprovides a cushion to the impact, thereby reduces the damage aftercrashing.

The Design of the air bag has many choices. The type of airbag that istypically seen in vehicles could be a choice. In some embodiments, theairbag is connected to compressed gas canisters. When the sensor tellsthe airbag to deploy, compressed air inside the canisters will fill asealed airbag. Typically the filling only takes a couple of secondsbefore the object falls onto ground. The airbag could take manydifferent shapes once deployed. Since the purpose is to minimize thedamage after a crash, the deployed airbag need to cover as much parts ofthe UAV as possible. In some embodiments, the airbag resembles a ballthat encloses the UAV inside. The airbags could be made into differentgeometric shapes, such as shapes, ring shaped, or any other shapes.

The airbag is fitted around the UAV before it is deployed. It could befolded and or affixed to the body of the UAV. The aerodynamic and thefunction of the UAV would be impacted minimally with folded airbags.

In special moving parts such as propellers and etc, airbags could beinstalled around them for safeguarding.

The sensor could be automatic or manual. An automatic sensor could usemodules such as accelerometers to detect abnormal behavior of the UAV inmid air. Another choice is to detect the altitude of the UAV. If the UAVis descending under certain altitude, or the UAV is descending adistance under a given time period which indicates lost of control, thenthe sensor will start deploying the airbag.

Under manual activation mode, a human operator or software couldinitiate the deployment of the airbag. The command signal is received bythe UAV wirelessly.

A drone or an unmanned arterial vehicle (UAV) is an aircraft without ahuman pilot aboard. Its flight is controlled either autonomously byonboard computers or by the remote control of a pilot on the ground orin another vehicle. An embodiment of the invention uses a drone to carrya gradually sturdier tether (GST) in moving an object to a designatedplace. A GST is a tether or multiple tethers connected to have thecharacteristics of getting sturdier along its length. Sometimes beingsturdier means a segment is made with a heavier material or the samematerial but thicker than another segment. In many cases that also meansthe GST is getting heavier per foot along its length. One example of aGST is a tether starts with a long thin thread made of nylon as thin asa tooth pick, and is securely connected to a heavier and sturdier rope,whose another end is connected to an iron chain. The breaking strengthof the portion closer to one end is at least twice of that of theportion to the other end of the tether. The weight per foot of onesegment of the GST could be at least twice of that of another segment ofthe same GST, because weight per foot increases as breaking strengthincreases. In some embodiments, a GST is formed by connecting aplurality of segments, each segment is made of different materials suchas thread, rope, chord, cord, chain, tether and the like, usually in anincreasing order of sturdiness along the length. In some embodiments, aGST is made with the same material but different construction along thelength. For example, a lower breaking strength end portion is made oftwo strands of rope, and the sturdier end portion is made of 16 strandsof the same rope material, each strand being the substantially the sameas the individual strand of the lower breaking strength end portion.Between them there are other segments of the same rope material withvarying number of strands, such as 4, 8 and 10 strands of the samestrand of rope.

The sturdier end portion of the GST is tied to an object useful for thetarget location. A drone such as a quadcopter drone is quite agile tofly to a target location but typically cannot carry heavy weight withit. In most drones commercially available today, the maximum payloadweight is generally less than 3 times of the weight of the drone. Atypical commercial drone has a range of weight for differentapplications. With the help of a GST, the drone can fly with the lesssturdy and usually light weight portion of the tether to the designatedlocation leaving the weight of the sturdier and usually heavier portionof the tether on the ground or supported by a structure. In this way,the drone does not have to bear the whole weight of the GST while inmidair, only the light portion of it. Once the drone flies to thedesired target location, a human or a machine gets hold of the GST, thehuman or the machinery may pull the GST to move the sturdier and usuallyheavier portion of the GST closer to the location, along goes theobject. Frequently the sturdier end of the GST is connected to a heavyobject, which is useful for that location.

The tether is generally longer than 5 feet. It could be madeconsiderably longer than 5 feet for different applications. In oneembodiment, a drone is tied to a GST's segment with lower breakingstrength, i.e. less sturdy portion, which is a sufficiently long thinthread made of nylon or the like. The rest of the GST rests on the deckof a sea going vessel. The drone flies with the thin end of the GST tothe mooring post of a dork. A dockworker on the dock gets hold of thedrone and picks up the thin thread, and start gradually pulling the restof the GST. The heavier and sturdier section of the GST is gradually ledby the lighter and less sturdy segment of the GST to the mooring post.Eventually the crewmember is able to fasten the mooring chain to themooring post. In this case the desired object is the heavy mooring chainitself.

In construction, frequently there is a need to move an object to or fromdifferent places. It is usually done by a crane especially when the twoplaces have an elevation difference. With some embodiments of theinvention, it can be accomplished without a crane. For instance, abucket needs to be lifted from the ground to the 10^(th) floor duringthe construction of a building. A GST is made with a sufficiently longthread made of nylon or the like, tied to one end of an iron chain whoseanother end is tied to the bucket. A drone tied to the less sturdy endportion of the GST, that is the nylon thread or the like, flies to thetarget location on the 10^(th) floor. A worker on the 10^(th) floor usesa combination of reels and pulleys to move the rest of the GST and thushoists the bucket to the 10^(th) floor.

Another application is for transferring materials or making connectionsbetween two sea going vessels. The drone could be flown from the firstvessel and landed on the second. The lower breaking strength and usuallylighter end portion of a GST is attached to the drone so the secondvessel could get hold it after the drone is landed. The crew on thesecond vessel pulls the segment with lower breaking strength. Graduallythe sturdier portion of the GST could be secured by the second vessel tomake a strong link between the two vessels. A pulley system could beestablished for transferring materials, or a tugging cable could befastened for tugging purpose. A refueling line could also be sent fromthe first vessel to the second vessel this way.

Yet another application is in rescuing people from buildings, especiallyhigh rise buildings. When a fire breaks out in a tall building,sometimes people found themselves stranded and could not get out.Helicopters have very limited access in many situations. Ladders offirefighters also present challenges in many circumstances. Anembodiment of the present invention could be used to carry out rescuemissions. Suppose a person is stranded by a window side on the 20thfloor of a high-rise building, which is beyond most firefighter'sladder's reach. The drone carrying the end portion of a GST, which haslower breaking strength, could easily found its way to the open windowfor the person stranded inside the building to get hold of. The otherend of the GST is tied to means for escaping, for example, a zip line, achute slide, a link to a helicopter in midair and not directly above thebuilding, or some other rescuing equipment. The person could pull theGST until the means for escaping reaches the window. Then the personcould start escaping with some help from the ground. It took a drone afew minutes to fly to such height and is considerably faster than othermeans.

A helicopter could utilize one embodiment of the invention. Thehelicopter could release the apparatus from mid air. The drone has theless sturdy portion of a GST tied to its body, and the bulk of the restof the GST stays inside the helicopter. After being dropped from thehelicopter and descended to an appropriate height, the drone flies to atarget location that is not directly under the helicopter. A person or amachine at the target location could get hold of the drone and the GST,and starts pulling the rest of the GST. Once the sturdier portion hasbeen pulled to the target location, materials or personnel at the targetlocation could be transferred to and from the helicopter. The advantageis that the helicopter does not have to be directly above the targetlocation, which would greatly limit the use of a helicopter. Thehelicopter could release the drone from anywhere as long as the lengthof the GST allows.

The advantages of using the various embodiments of the invention wouldbe helpful in rescuing or in military applications.

In some scenarios, the drone's target location is another aircraft, oran object attached to an aircraft in midair. The drone flies to theproximity of the object or the aircraft. The GST tied to the drone issecured by the target location, from which point the rest of the GSTwould be pulled so that a sturdier link could be established. This couldbe used in material or personnel transfer. Specifically for midairrefueling, a drone could be used in this fashion so that a refuelinghose could be connected between a fuel tank aircraft with an aircraft inmidair, after the sturdy link is established. A helicopter refuelingcould be accomplished by establishing a sea based or ground basedrefueling station while the helicopter remains in midair, not directlyabove the refueling station.

In accordance with the invention, frequently self-release mechanism isused for the drone to connect with the tether. Upon remote or onboardsoftware instructions, the drone's is able to release the tetherautomatically. This enables the drone to fly freely after the mission isaccomplished, or when the continuation of the connection might endangerthe drone or other equipment. The self-release mechanism is accomplishedby using a micro controller on board the drone that controls a linearactuator or other types of actuator to effectuate a movement of a rod ora curve shaped member. By virtual of the movements of the rod or thecurve shapes member, the tether can be released automatically. Othertypes of auto release mechanism is also available.

A drone connected with a tether could be analogous to a needle and athread, which could weave a variety of structures made of the tether bymoving the drone, as long as the drone is able to support the weight ofthe tether in midair. In this sense, the tether does not have to be aGST. Further the drone could move around an object multiple times andmake the tether go around the object multiple times, therefore fastensthe tether to the object. Moreover, a drone is able to make movement toform a knot using the tether. A drone could make movements based oncomputer control, which enables a drone to make patterned or complicatedmovements in accordance to computer instructions. This would make thetether form patterns or intricate structures in space.

In addition, in some embodiments, a plurality of drones are connectedthrough tethers. If the drones and the tethers are in midair, as long asthe drones are collectively able to life the tethers, the tethers do notnecessarily have to be GST. For instance, two drones might be connectedwith a tether and be flown in a concerted manner. One application withthis configuration is to use the tether as a blocking means to denyenemy aircraft. The tether could be made with material havingappropriate characteristics including strength, for instance withmaterial having tensile strength over 100 MPa. If an enemy jet or rotarywing aircraft comes into contact with the tether, the tethers couldentangle the rotary wings or damage the jet engines of the enemyaircraft. A different configuration is also possible, which isconnecting an air balloon and a drone with a tether to carry out airspace blocking mission. Generally the tether would be a threat if itwere moved to the proximity of an enemy aircraft, like within 100 feetof distance.

In winter ice and snow tend to accumulate on the overhead power orcommunication cables. The weight of the ice or snow sometimes couldbreak the cable. A drone or multiple drones could be used to clear outthe ice or snow accumulations. One method is to connect two drones witha tether, the tether touches the cable but at an angle with the cable.The two drones move the tether in one direction along the length of thecable. The movement of the tether against the accumulation clears itout.

The tether connected to a drone in many cases could also have powerrecharging capability. At least a portion of the tether that isconnected to the drone is a conductive wire or wires, or the portion ofthe tether is bundled with a conductive wire. A recharging device isattached to the end of the wire. When the recharging device comes intocontact to an appropriate energy source, the drone's onboardrechargeable battery could be recharged. This would give the drone morestaying power in midair. The recharging could take place by induction orby contact. Further the tether could be retractable. The drone extendsthe tether to make contact to the recharging power source, or to beclose to a recharging power source in induction recharging scenario. Therecharging power source could be based on ground or in midair supportedby an aircraft or even another drone. After the recharging is completed,the tether could be retracted by the drone.

Object manipulation mechanisms could be coupled to a drone, with orwithout a tether in between them. The object manipulation capabilitycombined with the ability of a drone's reach could make this type ofembodiments very versatile.

Further, In some embodiments, a drone is typically equipped with cameraand optionally a microphone, a GPS receiver, and other types of sensorsthat can feed information about the environment to the drone or remotelyto a human or a server. Software applications are used to analyze theimages and the information to make decisions about the next action ofthe apparatus. The instructions are sent to the drone and the devicescoupled to it to be carried out by the drone and the devices. Forinstance, a gripping mechanism could perform a variety of motions like ahuman hand, based on this control-feedback method.

There are numerous other usage scenarios for a variety of embodiments ofthe present invention.

DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

The novel features believed characteristic of the embodiments of thepresent application are set forth in the appended claims. However, theembodiments themselves, as well as a preferred mode of use, and furtherobjectives and advantages thereof, will best be understood by referenceto the following detailed description when read in conjunction with theaccompanying drawings, wherein:

FIG. 1 depicts the detection and rescuing mission carried out by thedrone with floatation device.

FIG. 2 depicts the details of floatation device and the collapsing andreleasing mechanisms.

FIG. 3 depicts the process of the flowchart of monitoring and rescuingusing audio and video signals.

FIG. 4 depicts the flowchart of monitoring and rescuing when a swimmerwears emergency notification device.

FIG. 5 depicts the system components of the primary embodiment of thepresent invention.

FIG. 6A depicts an embodiment that comprises a drone, a water propellerand an inflatable balloon, along with a compressed gas canister.

FIG. 6B depicts the same embodiment of FIG. 6A, wherein the inflatableballoon is inflated.

FIG. 7 depicts a release mechanism for the floatation device to dropfrom a drone.

FIG. 8 depicts another release mechanism for the floatation device todrop from a drone using gripping fingers.

FIG. 9 depicts the structure of the wearable emergency notificationdevice.

FIGS. 10-14 are oblique views of the system of FIG. 1 during use.

FIG. 15 depicts an alternative embodiment of the present invention inoperation.

FIG. 16 depicts a drone flies with the segment with lower breakingstrength of a GST to a target location.

FIG. 17 depicts an apparatus being used by a helicopter.

FIG. 18 depicts an embodiment that has auto release mechanism for thetether to separate from the drone.

FIG. 19 depicts a drone being connected with a tether adjusting amirror's position in midair.

FIG. 20 depicts a drone being connected with a tether clearing out iceand snow accumulation with the help of another drone.

FIG. 21 depicts a drone connected to a tether making patterns using thetether, with the help of another connected drone.

FIG. 22 depicts a retractable tether and a power recharging scenario.

FIG. 23 depicts a gripping mechanism coupled with a drone eitherdirectly or through a tether.

FIG. 24 depicts a drone being connected to a circular saw through atether.

FIG. 25A depicts a drone coupled with a welding device.

FIG. 25B depicts a drone coupled with an electromagnet.

FIG. 25C depicts a drone coupled with a nail gun.

FIG. 25D depicts a drone coupled with a vacuum.

FIG. 26 depicts a drone, a tether reeling mechanism, and a tetherreleasing mechanism combined.

FIG. 27A depicts a UAV with anti crash airbag before the airbag isdeployed.

FIG. 27B depicts a UAV with anti crash airbag after the airbag isdeployed.

FIG. 27C depicts the flowchart on how a UAV with anti crash airbag isdeployed.

While the system and method of use of the present application issusceptible to various modifications and alternative forms, specificembodiments thereof have been shown by way of example in the drawingsand are herein described in detail. It should be understood, however,that the description herein of specific embodiments is not intended tolimit the invention to the particular embodiment disclosed, but on thecontrary, the intention is to cover all modifications, equivalents, andalternatives falling within the spirit and scope of the presentapplication as defined by the appended claims.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT

Illustrative embodiments of the system and method of use of the presentapplication are provided below. It will of course be appreciated that inthe development of any actual embodiment, numerousimplementation-specific decisions will be made to achieve thedeveloper's specific goals, such as compliance with system-related andbusiness-related constraints, which will vary from one implementation toanother. Moreover, it will be appreciated that such a development effortmight be complex and time-consuming, but would nevertheless be a routineundertaking for those of ordinary skill in the art having the benefit ofthis disclosure.

The system and method of use will be understood, both as to itsstructure and operation, from the accompanying drawings, taken inconjunction with the accompanying description. Several embodiments ofthe system are presented herein. It should be understood that variouscomponents, parts, and features of the different embodiments may becombined together and/or interchanged with one another, all of which arewithin the scope of the present application, even though not allvariations and particular embodiments are shown in the drawings. Itshould also be understood that the mixing and matching of features,elements, and/or functions between various embodiments is expresslycontemplated herein so that one of ordinary skill in the art wouldappreciate from this disclosure that the features, elements, and/orfunctions of one embodiment may be incorporated into another embodimentas appropriate, unless described otherwise.

The preferred embodiment herein described is not intended to beexhaustive or to limit the invention to the precise form disclosed. Itis chosen and described to explain the principles of the invention andits application and practical use to enable others skilled in the art tofollow its teachings.

FIG. 1 depicts the detection and rescuing mission carried out by thedrone with floatation device. The detection and rescue missions areillustrated in 100. The drone with the floatation device is illustratedin 102. The drone should be able to carry some minimum weight such as0.5 kilograms. A microphone and/or loudspeaker communication device 104and a video camera 106 are mounted in the drone to pick up audio andvideo input from the water below. A GPS receiver 105 receives geocoordinates. The collapsible floatation device is depicted in 108. Astrip or case 110 wraps around the floatation device to prevent it frompopping open. One end of pin 112 is fastened to the bottom of the droneand the other end is inserted in the holes of the strip 110. Identifiers210A and 210B are the two supporting structures extending from thebottom of the drone. More details of the view of the plane 1A are shownin FIG. 2. A swimmer in distress (SID) is shown in 124. He wears awearable notification device 122. He also yells “HELP!” as a SID woulddo. The audio and the video signals have been transmitted to a commandcenter. The wearable device 122 also gives notification to the commandcenter or the drone, with GPS location information. The drone flies overthe SID 124 and is ready to drop the floatation device 108.

FIG. 2 depicts the details of the floatation device and the collapsingand releasing mechanisms. The floatation device 108 is collapsible intomultiple adjoining panels such as 108A, 108B, and 108C. A spring hinge108D is attached to the short sides of two panels 108A and 108B. Ifthere is no outside force, the spring hinge 108D causes the two panelsto lay flat side by side, as indicated by the arrow above the twopanels. On the other hand, an outside force makes the two panels foldalong their adjoining short sides. In similar fashion, another panel108C is attached to the panel 108A, but along the other short side andon the other surface by a spring hinge. Multiple panels are thuscollapsed if a force is applied perpendicular to the folding surfaces.When the force is removed, the spring hinges cause the panels to extendto its fullest, which make all the panels to be flat and joined by thespring hinges 1A indicates the same plane shown in FIG. 1. The forcehere is the case or strip 110 wrapping around the collapsed panels. 110Aand 110B are the two ends of the strip 110. 110 is a strip made of rigidplastics with an open ends. There is a small hole close to each end, asshown in 208A and 208B, for the two prongs 112A and 112B of the pin 112to insert and fasten. 210A and 210B are the two supporting structuresextending from the bottom of the drone. Two cylindrical shafts 212A and212B are fixed on the drone supporting structures 210A and 201B. Theshafts 212A and 212B go under the strip 110's two ends 110A and 110B,respectively, holding the weight of the collapsible floatation device108. To fasten and create an auto release mechanism, a pin 112 is used.One end of the pin 112 is attached to the bottom of the drone, and onthe other end are two pronged pins 112A and 112B. The pin 112 is able tomove vertically by the drone to lock or release the floatation device.When the two prongs 112A and 112B are inserted into the small holes 208Aand 208B of the strip ends 110A and 110B, the strip is locked in itsplace and so is the floatation device 108. However, when the pin 112 ismoved upward and leaves the holes 208A and 208B, there is no force tohold down the two ends of the strip 110A and 110B.

The imbalance of forces on the two sides of shaft 212A would cause 110Ato detach from the surface of 108 and break loose, which also is thecase for 110B, and that leads to the detachment of the entire strip 110from the floatation device 108. As soon as the constrict of the strip isremoved, the collapsible floatation device 110 falls from the drone, andthe spring hinges cause the panels to extend to their fullest state. Theextension will continue on the water surface if it is not completedduring the fall. In other embodiments, a release hook with a spring isused instead of the simple pin to lock the hole and press down the endsof the strip 110.

FIG. 3 depicts the process of the flowchart of monitoring and rescuingusing audio and video signals. On the left side of the dotted line isthe flowchart occurring on the drone, while the right side of the dottedline represents the flowchart of what is occurring in the commandcenter. In step 302, the drone's onboard camera 106 and device 104 inFIG. 1 capture audio and video information of the swimmers below. Thelive audio/video stream 314 is transmitted wirelessly to the commandcenter for image and acoustic processing in step 308. Once a SID isfound, the command center directs the drone's action by sending flightinstruction 316 back to the drone. The drone flies over the SID'slocation according to the flight instruction 316. Once it reaches abovethe SID, it releases the flotation device in step 306. The image andacoustic processing step 308 could be accomplished by human beings, orby software. Human beings are excellent in spotting SID. One method isto live stream the video and audio to volunteers all over the world.There are many volunteers or human monitors who are willing to monitorthe swimmers. If a SID is identified by them, they will notify thecommand center for further action, all through the Internet. Software isalso suitable for the task of detecting a SID. A SID has somecharacteristic body movements and sound signature. For instance, theSID's body typically is vertical in the water, and the SID's hands arewaving irregularly and rapidly. The head of a SID tends to be submerged.The yelp of “HELP!” could be captured in many cases. In otherembodiments, part or all of the functionalities of the command centerare handled by the drone.

FIG. 4 depicts the flowchart of monitoring and rescuing when a swimmerwears the portable emergency notification device. When a SID feels indistress, he would press a button on his wearable emergency notificationdevice, which sends wireless signals either to a drone, or to a commandcenter, or both. After the emergency signal is received in 402, thedrone got the notification with the geo-coordinates of the SID'slocation. The drone is equipped with its own GPS receiver as shown in105 in FIG. 1. It compares the relative bearing between its own locationand the SID's location and deduces the route getting there in step 404.Once the drone is above the SID, it releases the floatation device forrescuing the SID in step 406.

Please note that sometimes the wireless signal from the wearable may beused as a radio beacon to guide the drone to home in on the portablenotification device. GPS signals may not be an absolute necessarily inthis case.

FIG. 5 depicts the system components of the primary embodiment of thepresent invention. System 500 depicts the overall architecture. It is tobe noted that not every element needs to be included in all embodiments.For example, in some embodiments the drones are completely autonomousand do not require the command center, and are capable of carrying outthe entire search and rescue mission. The drone 102 is also shown as 102in FIG. 1. It communicates wirelessly with a base station 502, which inturn connects with the Internet 508. The command center 504 and a mobiledevice 506 are connected to the Internet and are able to communicatewith each other. The wearable device 122 is also shown as 122 in FIG. 1.122A is the strap to be attached to the swimmer's wrist, and the button122B is used to send emergency signals. The emergency notificationsignal is sent to the base station 502 or is sent directly to the drone,depending on configurations. The emergency information includesgeo-coordinate information so the drone can quickly locate the SID.

FIG. 6A depicts an embodiment that comprises a drone, a water propellerand an inflatable balloon, along with a compressed gas canister. 602 isa drone. 604 is a propeller to be used in water. The propeller 604 isconnected to a connecting shaft 614, which is in turn connected to thedrone 602. A compressed gas canister 608 is placed inside a housing 606,which is also connected to the connecting shaft 614. The compressed gascanister 608 contains pressurized gas, such as CO₂. The housing 605 thatholds the compressed gas canister 608 is connected to an inflatableballoon 610. The opening of the inflatable balloon 610 leads to a hollowhole inside a plunger 628. On the one end of the plunger 634 is a pin624 which is hollow for inducing gas to escape to a gas passage way 632.The pin 624 could be moved in direction 626 to puncture the seal 613 ofthe canister 608. That will allow the gas inside the canister 613 toescape into the inflatable balloon 610 via the hole 628, and the gaspassage way 632 provided by a connector 630 which connects to theopening of the inflatable balloon 610.

A servo 612 is fastened to the inside wall of the housing 606. Its arm638 moves in direction indicated by 620 to push the plunger 634 in thedirection of 626. Identifier 636 is a pin axle connecting the arm 638and the plunger 634. The servo's movement is under the control of thedrone. During patrol mode, the inflatable balloon 610 is folded to savespace and make the drone aerodynamic.

In some embodiments, the shaft is separable from the drone 602, whichcould enable to the floatation device 610 and the water propeller 604 torelease from the drone.

FIG. 6B depicts the same embodiment of FIG. 6A, wherein the inflatableballoon is inflated. If a SID is identified, the drone 602 fliesdirectly over to the SID and descend on the water. The servo 612 underthe control of the drone plunges the pin 624 into the canister 608 torelease the compressed gas into the inflatable balloon 610. The balloonmay have handles 616 for the SID to get hold onto. The water propeller604 starts revving up once in water with battery housed inside 640. TheSID holds onto the handle 616 to float on water. The propeller 604provides the propulsion for the SID to swim back to safety. It is nottoo difficult for the SID to control the direction of the propulsionusing the handles 616.

FIG. 7 depicts a release mechanism for the floatation device to dropfrom a drone. Drone 702 is connected to a floatation device 716 throughconnecting rods 704 and 706. At the connecting end, rod 706 has a CU′shaped indent for the connecting rod 704 to fit in. There are holes onthe two arms of the CU′ shaped indent and the end portion of rod 704 toallow a pin to hold the rods together. A pin 708 goes through the holesinside both rods 704 and 706 to hold them in place. A servo 714 isfastened on rod 704, and its moving arm 712 causes the pin 708 to movein direction indicated by 710, which can disengage the rod 706 and 704and release the rod 706 from the drone. The servo 714 is under thecontrol of the drone.

FIG. 8 depicts another release mechanism for the floatation device todrop from a drone using gripping fingers. The gripping mechanism 806enables the drone 804 to get hold of a floatation device such as a lifevest 852 and release it. FIG. 8 only shows one possible mountingposition for the gripping mechanism. The life vest 852 is to be grippedor grabbed by the fingers 828A and 828B of the gripping mechanism 806,and could be released when the fingers 828A and 828B move away from eachother.

A motor 810 is mounted on the mounting rod 808, the motor 810 enablesthe gripping arm and fingers to rotate around its central axis 830, inboth directions as shown in 832. The ends of the guide rod 814A and 814Bare fastened to the frame end members 812 and 824, which is directlycoupled to the motor 810. When the motor 810 is in operation, its torqueis transferred to the frame end member 812, which in turn make the restof the gripping mechanism rotate around its central axis 830, in bothdirections as shown in 832. This rotating motion helps the grippingmechanism overcome possible resistance from a possible attachmentbetween the object being gripped and some other object. For instance,when the drone is used to pick fruits like apples from a tree, after anapple is being gripped by the gripping mechanism 806, the rotatingmotion 832 around the central axis 830 makes it easy for the apple tobreak from its stem.

The frame on which the actuator housing 848 is installed comprises aframe end member 812, another frame end member 824, and two guide rail814A and 814B being parallel to each other. The guide rails 814A and814B are fastened to the frame end member 812 and 824, and areperpendicular to the two frame end members 812 and 824. The housing ofthe linear actuator 848 is fastened to the frame end member 824, whilethe thrust rod 846 of the actuator is able to move along the centralaxis 830. The top plate 844 is joined to the end of the thrust rod 846.The top plate 844 is further fastened to two moving tubes 818A and 818Brespectively. The two moving tubes 818A and 818B are fitted to the guiderod 814A and 814B, respectively, which can move in both directions asshown in 816 along the guide rods 814A and 814B. The ends of the rightgripping arm 822A and the left gripping arm 822B are connected with themoving tubes 818A and 818B through rotatable couplings 820A and 820B,respectively. The other ends of the right gripping arm 822A and the leftgripping arm 822B are connected to the right gripping finger 828A and828B through rotatable coupling 826 A and 826B respectively. Themovement of the top plate 844 away from the actuator housing 848 makesthe moving tubes 818A and 8186 move upward, away from the actuatorhousing 848, along the guide rods 814A and 814B respectively. Thatmotion in turn causes the up ends of the gripping arms 822A and 822B tomove upward because of the coupling 820A and 820B, respectively; andcauses the lower ends of the gripping arms 822A and 822B to move inwardtoward the central axis 830, because of the couplings 826A and 826B,respectively. As a result of the inward movement of the gripping arms822A and 822B, the gripping fingers 828A and 828B moves toward thecentral axis 830, as shown in direction 834. When the top plate 844moves down and toward the actuator housing 848, the motions of themoving parts are reversed, resulting in the opening of the grippingfingers 828A and 828B, as shown in the direction of 836. The twodirections 834 and 836 correspond to the gripping motion and releasingmotion of the gripping mechanism respectively. When the gripping fingers828A and 828B open in the direction 836, the floatation device 852 isreleased from the drone.

FIG. 9 depicts the structure of the wearable emergency notificationdevice 900 is the sectional view of the emergency device also shown as122 in FIG. 1 and FIG. 5. 902 is the band to be worn around wrist orother body parts. 904 is the button that sits on top of two springs 912.Water proof rubber seal 906 prevents water invasion into the device. 908and 910 are conductors connected to the button 912 and the base 914respectively. Once the button 904 is depressed, the conductors 908 and910 come into contact with each other and close a circuit to triggeremergency notification. Inside the casing of the base 914 is thehardware of the device that is depicted on the right side of the FIG. 9.The mechanic trigger 922 refers to the trigger caused by the contact ofconductors 908 and 910. The CPU 916 detects the trigger and startssending out ‘SOS’ signal and the geo-location information collected fromthe GPS receiver 918 via the communication module 920.

In some embodiments, an accelerometer 924 and a hydrostatic sensor 926are added to detect abnormal arm movements. The hydrostatic sensor 926is used to tell if the device is above or submerged under water; and ifsubmerged, the device's submerge depth. A drowning person's arms tend tomove erratic relative to water surface. For instance, statistics andexperiments may suggest that a drowning person's arms would move abovewater surface in vehement but short burst of back-and-forth movement.

In addition, sensors that measure the wearer's biometric informationcould be used. Information such as the user's heart rate, blood oxygenlevel, breathing pattern, and other vital signs could be used fordetermining whether the user is under stress. Using these types ofpatterns and user's physical vital sign information, the CPU 916 is ableto determine whether or not the wearer is in drowning danger. If the CPU916 determines that the wearer is in drowning danger, a ‘SOS’notification and GPS information would be sent via the communicationmodule 920. It is possible to add other detection sensors to thenotification device, such as camera, microphone, /loudspeakercommunication device biometric or vital sign sensors and so forth tofurther enhance the detection accuracy. In conjunction with the presentdisclosure, those skilled in the art will be able to design andincorporate any one of the variety of mechanisms suitable foraccomplishing the above described functionalities.

It is to be understood that the disclosure teaches just one example ofthe illustrative embodiment and that many variations of the inventioncan easily be devised by those skilled in the art after reading thisdisclosure and that the scope of then present invention is to bedetermined by the following claims.

Referring now to FIG. 10, a system 1000 is shown utilizing the featuresdiscussed above associated with a ship 1002 having different locationsfor drone takeoff and cameras 1004. The proposed drone system includesthree major components: a drone carrying a lifebuoy payload, a housingfor the drone (Hive) on the deck of the ship, and multiple camerasincluding infrared and visible light cameras placed on ship structuresthat detect areas 1006 around proximate to the ship. As shown in FIG.11, a drone 1102 is deployed to rescue person 1104. A camera 1106 isutilized to provide the user with images of the party, and a payload1202 carried by the drone 1102 is deployed to the party 1104, as shownin FIG. 12. In one embodiment, the payload could include an inflatabledevice having a plurality of arms 1302 for the party to float on, asshown in FIG. 13. The floatation device could be secured to a towline1402, which in turn tows the party back to the ship.

The detection of MOB is achieved primarily via computer vision throughinfrared and visible light cameras. When the man-overboard warning istriggered, the drone with the payload will take off from the hive andfly over across the sea to seek the MOB with its own onboard infraredcamera. The process is fully automated, but could accommodate commanderintervention. After the MOB is located, the drone releases its payload(a lifebuoy, a thermal unit and etc.) to the MOB. Once this rescueprocedure is finished, the drone will return to the hive automaticallyand recharge itself before the next rescue mission. It is recommendedthat for a ship size like a destroyer, at least four such units bestrategically placed on the ship.

The Drone and the Payload

A multicopter (e.g. a quadcopter, a hexcopter and an octocopter) hasbeen proven to be a reliable and easy-to-control small-scaled airborneplatform. Battery powered multicopter has been widely used in personaland commercial applications in recent years. Large octocopters (such asDJI's S1000) can fly for more than 20 to 30 minutes in a single chargewhile carrying a payload of more than 8 pounds. We are proposing asimilar multicopter drone with a maximum speed of 40 mph or 34.7 knotsand a radius of operation of at least 2 nautical miles. The drone iscapable of auto-piloting such that that it can take-off, navigate to thedesired location, search for the MOB and return without any humaninteractions. With a payload of at least 8 pounds, the drone can carryvarious rescue equipment including but not limited to lifebuoy and MK6float smoke. The drone is equipped with high definition visible lightcamera and infrared camera, which can detect the MOB in water during dayand night. The drone is built in an IP 67 enclosure that provides enoughprotection against temporary water immersion. The drone has the on-boardself-diagnostic capability to minimize the maintenance procedure.

The Housing of the Drone (the Hive)

The housing of the drone or the so-called ‘Hive’ is the droneport tostore, reload the payload, and recharge the drone between operations. Ina ship of a destroyer size, we place four such hives on the decks ofboth the port and the starboard side. Typically infrared cameras areplaced close the hives. Additional standalone infrared (IR) camerasensors could be placed around the ship to look out at sea; forinstance, a standalone IR camera could be placed at the stern position.The hive consists of two parts: the upper part is a hangar to store thedrone, and the lower part is where all the electronics are located. Thehangar is covered with an automatic retractable dome-shaped hatch, whichwill open during the take-off and landing of the drone. It is closedduring other times to protect the drone. There will be a charging pad atthe bottom of the hangar to charge the battery of the drone during thestorage as well as the locking mechanisms to fix the drone afterlanding.

The ground station for the drone is located in the lower part of thehive, which will communicate with the drone during mission if needed.The charging circuitry is also inside the lower part with othernecessary electronics. Multiple pairs of visible light and infraredcameras are positioned strategically on the ship structure, pointing atthe sea to monitor any overboard event and to provide the initialestimated position of the event. There will also be an optional IRbeacon outside of the housing in order to guide the drone during theself-landing when GPS signal and communication is not available.

Detection and Searching

The MOB has to be identified and tracked both quickly and accurately. Toaccomplish this task automatically, we rely on passive infrared camerasand computer vision (CV) algorithms that are deployed on both the shipand the drones.

The reason for adopting infrared cameras is twofold: 1) militaryapplications usually require a certain level of “emissions control” orEMCON, making the use of passive detection a preferable choice. 2) humanhas a body temperature that radiates at the wavelength of 12 um.Long-wavelength infrared (LWIR) cameras that are sensitive to infraredwavelengths around 8-15 um can thus be used to create high contrasthuman body images (e.g. FIG. 1) again background seawater. Such strongcontrast is welcomed for our algorithm to detect and capture an MOBincident quickly and accurately.

Specifically, the object identifying and tracking problem using CV hasbeen extensively studied for many years. A general framework for such atask, consists of four steps: object initialization, appearancemodeling, motion estimation and object localization. By applying imagefilters and feature detection algorithms such as the Canny edgedetector, the high intensity region that represents human body in the IRcamera images can be easily extracted to achieve object initializationand appearance modeling. Following that, motion estimation and objectlocalization can be accomplished by the widely used “mean-shift”algorithm [10] to identify and track MOB events.

While there have been attempts to commercialize such an automatic MOBdetection scheme with an on-ship detection system, our system stands outwith the concept of “3D” detection and tracking. With the aid of themoving lifeguard drones, we introduce another degree of freedom in timeand space domains to track the MOB after the falling incident occurs.Such design considerations make our system more effective and morereliable as explained in more details below.

To enable such a “3D” scheme, we apply the IR tracking at 2 places.First, multiple infrared cameras are installed on carefully selectedlocations on the ship to prevent any blind spots. The camerascontinuously monitor a contiguous water surface extending from thewaterline of the ship. The detection range depends on the image size andlens choices. As an example, for a commercially available LWIR camerawith a 640×480 pixels image size and a 65 mm lens, the maximumidentification range (i.e. the range that still clearly identify thecharacteristics of the object) can be as large as 435 meters, which issufficient to cover the water surrounding the entire ship. The computersconnected to these IR cameras continuously apply the tracking algorithmsto the acquired images to look for the region with the highestcorrelation with the thermal features of human—this is called the“detector” mode.

If the correlation is beyond a certain threshold, the computers declarean alarm and switch to the “follower” mode. In the “follower” mode, thecomputer calculates the position of the target relative to the center ofthe frame and adjusts the cameras to re-lock the target in the center ofthe frame. The reason we require the target to be in the center is thatthe optical lenses usually have the least geometric distortion in thecenter, so we can be sure that the camera is pointing in the directionof the target. Therefore, the relative location of the target to thevessel as well as its absolute GPS location is known through geometricmeasurement before dispatching the rescue drone. To further assist thegeometric measurement to pinpoint the MOB, the algorithm takes intoparameters such as the GPS locations of the cameras, multiple imagesacquired through multiple cameras from different moments, and referenceframes. Triangulations plus other standard photogeometric algorithms canbe used. The GPS location of the MOB is to be fed to the drone as awaypoint for drone to home in on the MOB.

Second, an infrared camera is mounted on the gimbal system of the rescuedrone. When the drone is launched, its camera is initialized to point tothe direction of the target located by the on-ship infrared cameras, asshown in FIG. 4. Note that the camera starts with a wide viewing angleto ensure the target is in the field of view and then zoom in to arelatively small view angle once the target is locked. A trackingalgorithm is used to calculate the position of the target relative tothe drone. The algorithm is similar to what's used by the IR camera onthe ship.

Subsequently the computer directs the drone to the target and alsocontrols the gimbal system to balance for any undesired movement of thedrone. As the drone flies closer to the target, the camera tilts morestraight down. When the camera is almost pointing straight down, itmeans that the drone is roughly above the target. Then the gimbal systemwill lock the camera to the straight down position and the controlleronly adjusts the drone to track the target. Now the field of vieweffectively becomes a 2D coordinate system. Once the target is at thecenter of the frame, it means that the drone is exactly above the targetand the lifesaving toolkit would then be released. Note that during thewhole procedure, the drone is fully autonomous—no communication link isnecessary between the drone and the ship.

The initial location estimation from the on-ship camera is passed to thedrone at the time of take-off. However, if the system is operating underNon-EMCON mode, and real-time monitoring is desired, a radio link isavailable for two-way communications between the ship and the droneduring the search and rescue phase. Furthermore, radar is anothercomplementary option for increasing the accuracy of detection andlocating of an MOB under this Non-EMCON mode.

Rescue

Rescuing is performed once the MOB has been identified. The cruiseheight of the drone while during searching is generally under 300 feet,which takes into considerations of camera range and ship clearance. Thehover height once the drone reaches the location of the MOB is about 10feet for accurate delivery and safety. The drone could optionally carrya mega phone and a microphone/loudspeaker device to talk to the MOB. Thepayload has a door at the bottom of the payload pod. When the door isopened by the control software, the content inside the payload pod isreleased. There is also a pushing mechanism inside the pod that helpsthe content come out.

The floatation device is specially designed to fit the needs for MOB.The choices of color, material, shape, as well as inflation mechanismare carefully considered to fit the hostile ocean environment. In someembodiments, some level of mobility and intelligence could be built intothe floatation device. For instance, a small battery and propeller alongwith computer vision on the floatation device could be expected to sailtoward the MOB after being release onto the water, thereby greatlyenhances the chances of being grabbed by the MOB. In addition, we willbe developing the floatation device to behave like a mini robot forrescuing unconscious MOB.

In order to save one MOB, all the drones could be optionally dispatchedin tandem or simultaneously to increase rescue success rate. Each dronemight carry different payloads. For instance, a thermal unit could bedropped to fight hypothermia

After the MOB has taken hold of the floatation device, the drone has twooptions: either it hovers above the MOB to give a clear indication ofthe whereabouts of the MOB for further retrieval, or it returns to theship, with the information of the GPS location of the MOB.

Two types of retrieving methods can be used right after the MOB isstabilized. One method is to sail the ship back to the proximity of theMOB and retrieve by conventional method. Not only does it pose dangerfor nearby ships and the MOB, it also interferes with the ship's plannedmission. Sometimes it's not even possible in a battlefield.

To overcome these challenges, we propose another “active” retrievalmethod, again enabled by the used of the drone. Please note that thenewly proposed method is entirely optional which has no impact on themain mission if not adopted.

We fit a spooled lifeline into the drones' payload. The lifeline couldbe made of standard big game fish fishing line, such as fluorocarbonleader with 200 lbs strength. The weight and the size of the spool offishing line are well under the drone's capacity, even if the length ofthe fish line is over 1 mile. One end of the fishing line is tied to areel that is fixed on the ship. The reel is not making any rotation atthis stage. The entire spool of the lifeline is being carried inside thedrone's payload while flying. The spool rotates freely inside thedrone's payload and the lifeline is extended by the tension between thefixed reel on the sip and the movement of the drone (or by a small motoron the spool). Upon arrival at the MOB site, the drone hovers above theMOB. The spool's rotation is locked and ceases to rotate, and then theentire spool is released from the drone's payload to the MOB under. Anintegrated design is to tie or fasten this spool with the floatationdevice mentioned before.

The spool is being connected to the reel on the ship by the fishingline. Now that the MOB gets hold of the spool it signals the start ofthe actual retrieval. The reel onboard the ship starts reeling in thefishing line. In most cases, the ship does not need to make thedangerous and costly maneuvering to get to the proximity of the MOB. Inthe past the lifeline has to be cast at the MOB, which is inaccurate andvery limited by throwing range. Now with this fishing line delivered bya drone technology, it becomes feasible to retrieve an MOB hundreds ofyards away with ease, much like reeling in a motionless fish, as shownin FIG. 7.

The reels on board the ship are located on the drone housing or otherconvenient locations on the ship. The reels are much like the powerfishing reel.

Design Considerations

1. Radio Transmissions:

With the understanding of minimizing radio emission for this system intimes of need, we designed two kinds of modes: the default EMCON modeand the optional Non-EMCON mode.

The ship commander could switch between the two modes. For the defaultEMCON mode, the detection is passive, and relies on infrared imagingdetection and homing. Once the drone is airborne, there is no directradio link between the drone and the ship.

In the optional Non-EMCON mode, the detection could be enhanced byadding other active detection methods. For instance, the sailor may havea wearable which could detect contact with sea water. The wearable wouldalso transmit GPS location for accurate search. The wireless linkbetween the airborne drone and the ship could be utilized. The airbornedrone sends live video back to ship commander for situation awareness.Optionally the drone could be operated by human besides its auto-homingcapabilities, either though the video feed from the drone's camera orfrom line of sight of the operator. The commander is able to talk to theMOB during rescue via the megaphone onboard the drone. Radartechnologies could be used to assist searching and homing.

2. Wearable Device for Sailors (Optional):

In the Non-EMCON mode, a wearable radio transmission device is carriedby every crew member. It could be a necklace. The built in sensor coulddetect seawater contact thereby send SOS signal along with the GPSlocation to our system. An on-duty system admin could further determineif the situation warrants further action. This necklace would also beable to track every crewmember on a real time basis no matter where theyare in the ship.

3. Floatation Device and Payload:

Flotation devices will be designed for the purpose of the system. Theobjective is to make the floatation device as easy to grab as possibleby the MOB, and still could be fit in a standard payload pod. Thefloatation device is an automatic inflatable tube. There is a watersensor, which upon coming into contact with water would trigger therelease of compressed CO2 that is stored inside a canister. The CO2 gasthen fills the sealed tube within seconds. The inflated shape wouldresemble a ‘+’ sign with dimensions of 10 ft. by 10 ft., and there arehandles on the tube. Dozens of 2-foot lines would be attached to thetube for easy grabbing.

The drone and payload system is like a Swiss army knife in that it cancarry and drop any item. Each payload is a preloaded pod that can beswap in and out of the drone in seconds even by untrained personnel. Forexample, in order to fight hypothermia, a chemical or electrical thermalunit could be put inside the payload. Sea dye marker could be anotherchoice. Other payloads could be medicals, radios, small weapons and etc.Different types of payload could be stored on ship. With differentsituations, the payload could be snapped on or to be reloaded after adrone comes back to its housing.

4. Weather Resistance:

Our drone is designed as an all-weather flying machine. Weatherresistance design is one of the key areas of our effort and expertise.Our design of the drone has much improved aero-dynamic, flight controlstability and weight distribution. In addition the choice of hexcopteror octocopter makes it more wind resistant with extra battery power. Theelectrical and mechanical parts such as batteries, controllers andmotors will be waterproof to an IP67 level. In the future roadmap, ourdrone would be able to land on water with its own buoyancy.

5. Operating Safety:

Our drone has built in collision avoidance capability based onomni-directional computer vision. It also has geo-fence to avoid theknown no-fly zone. For instance, the drone will avoid the collision withthe body of the ship itself. The launch command could also take into thehelicopter information so that when a helicopter is active the droneoperation will take a special sequence of approval process to fly amission. In designing the software we also build in artificialintelligence for the drone to forecast and recognize potential hazardson its flying path.

MOB is a serious problem for ships, commercial vessels, oil platforms,ferry boats, and fishing boats. To illustrate the severity of the MOBproblem, the ferry boats tragedy in South Korea in 2014 claimed about300 lives. Based on industry statistics, on average over 20 passengersand crews of cruise and ferry ships became victims of MOB. Many moreunreported incidents would make this MOB problem even more pronounced.In the US, the fatality rate of MOB occurred in boating is over 50%.

Our system could be used by civilian ships to greatly enhance theeffectiveness of detection and rescuing MOB.

FIG. 10 depicts an alternative embodiment of the present application.The overall scenario of projecting images and broadcasting sound inmidair is illustrated in 1500.

In the exemplary embodiment, a drone 1502 carrying a speaker 1520 and aprojector 1506 is shown airborne. The projector 1502 is fastened to thedrone by fasteners comprising 1510. The lens 1508 of the projector 1506projects an image 1514 onto a screen 1112 as illustrated by beam oflight 1518 emitting from the lens 1508. The four corners of the screen1112 are fastened by tethers and spread by four airborne drones 1504A,1504B, 1504C and 1504D. As depicted, one or the tethers 1516 isconnected to the corner of the screen 1514 and a drone 1504C. Drone 1502is referred to as “Projecting Drone” (or “PD”), while drones 1504A-1504Dare referred to as ‘Screen Spreading Drone”, or SSD.

In some embodiments, the tether 1516 is fastened directly to a dronesuch as 1504A, while in some other embodiments, the tether 1516 isconnected to a reel onboard a drone. The reel could be driven by motoror spring to exert tension on the tether. Identifier 1522 illustratesthe reel and identifier 1524 illustrates the motor, both of which aremounted on the frame of an SSD 1504B. In some embodiments, the drone hassensors to measure the tension on the tether, and the drone controls themotor to loosen or tighten the tension.

There are a variety of other embodiments that utilize some parts or allof the above elements and configurations. In one embodiment, the drone1502 has an integrated video projecting function, which allows it toproject video images without a dedicated video projector.

In another embodiment, the video images are projected onto a natural orman-made surface, still or moving. For example, the surface of abuilding, a structure, ground, the surface of a moving object or objectssuch as a blimp, aircraft, another drone, vehicles.

In yet another embodiment, the drones that spread the screen 1112 neednot be four, but could be any other numbers. The place where the screenis attached to the drone need not be at the corner, it could be any partof the screen, for example, the center of the screen. In Yet anotherembodiment, only a portion of the screen is attached to at least a droneand other portions are attached to other objects, for instance, theground. In this case, the screen is spread by the forces of the at leastone drone while a portion of it is fixed by the ground.

There is no special requirement of the shape, geometric form, material,and configuration of the screen 1112. Any surface that can reflect lightwould be considered as a screen. In one embodiment, the screen is madeof a piece of fabric, in another embodiment, the screen is the outersurface of an enclosure in which air is pumped, such like an airballoon.

The screen 1112 is made of material that is able to reflect light orintercept light, such as but not limited to fabric, paper, rubber andetc. It could be flexible or rigid.

In some embodiments, the drones 1502 as well as drone 1514A-1514D havesensors to stabilize the instruments carried by them, using devices suchas gyroscopes. It is sometimes important to stabilize the video imagesprojected by the PD due to the influence of airflow and drone's ownmotions. Gyroscope is a widely used tool to obtain stability, whichcould be used in achieving stability of the light projected. Another wayto enhance stability of projected images is to achieve relativestabilities among the PD and SSDs. The PD and the SSDs communicate witheach other about its relative position with the rest of drones.Adjustment is made by a drone when there is a deviation from previouslystable positions vis-à-vis other drones.

In some embodiments, the drones 1502 and drone 1514A-1514D arecontrolled remotely, or by their own onboard communication and controlmodules for concerted movements. Yet in some other embodiments, part ofthe screen is attached to other objects such as the ground or astructure, while part of the screen is tied to a drone a group ofdrones.

In some embodiments, the source of the video or audio is from receivedas wireless signals. Yet in other embodiments, the video or audio sourceis from an onboard camera and microphone/loudspeaker device, or fromonboard storage medium carried by the drone 1502. Yet in some otherembodiments, the video and audio sources are from the combination of theabove sources.

In one embodiment, only the drone with a speaker is used to broadcastaudio to the surrounding environment. In another embodiment, only thedrone with image projecting capability is used and the images areprojected onto existing natural or man-made surfaces. Yet in anotherembodiment, only the apparatus with the screen spread by drones is usedto reflect or to display images, which come from a light projectingsource, such as a fixed projector. There are other possibleconfigurations using the different parts or all the elements mentionedabove in yet other embodiments.

FIG. 16 depicts a drone flies with the segment with lower tensilestrength (sometimes called ‘breaking strength’) of a GST to a targetlocation. The drone is flying with the less sturdy segment of a GST 1602attached to it, and is heading for the target location 1618 to deliver adesired object 1614, as illustrated in 1600. The drone 1616, in thiscase a quadcopter, is flying in midair. The lower breaking strength endportion of the GST 1602 is attached to the drone 1616. The rest of the1602 is spooled atop ground. It is connected at junction 1604 with agradually sturdier segment 1606. In this embodiment the segment 1606 ismade of a rope or cable. The other end portion of the rope 1606 has beenmade a loop 1610 and is connected to a metal chain 1612 at 1610. Inaddition, a pulley 1608 is also attached to the GST at the end portionof the rope 1606. in some embodiments, the pulley 1608 is a power reelthat can reel the lines. The metal chain 1612 is further attached to anobject 1614, which is desired at the target location 1618. The targetlocation 1618 is located at the 20^(th) floor of a high-rise building1622. A person 1620 is ready to get hold of the drone 1616 and theattached GST. Either the person 1620 or someone else could control theflight of the drone 1620. In one scenario, the person 1620 could sendthe drone from the target location 1618 and let it fly to the ground,and someone on the ground could fasten the GST to the drone.

Once the person 1620 gets hold of the drone 1616 and the attached GST1602, the person could start pulling the GST either by himself by amachine. The pulley 1608 would be sent to the target location for theperson 1620 to use. The pulley 1608 could be replaced with a machineinvolving a pulley or a reel. The person would be able to eventually gethold of the desired object 1614, which typically would be too heavy orinconvenient to deliver to the target location with other means.

The drone needs to afford the weight of the portion of the GST betweenthe target location and the point where the GST first gets support fromthe ground or a structure. Further the breaking strength of the portionof GST that is at the target location needs to be greater than theweight of the portion of the GST between the target location and thepoint where GST first gets its support from the ground or a structure.

Sometimes a segment of the GST itself is the desired object. One exampleis mooring a vessel at a dock, where the mooring chain is the desiredobject to be delivered to the dockside and to be secured on a mooringpost.

Please refer to FIG. 17, which depicts the apparatus being used by ahelicopter in mid air. In 1700, a helicopter dropped an embodiment ofthe invention and attempts to establish a connection with a targetlocation that is not directly under the helicopter. The helicopter 1702initially stores the embodiment of the invention. It flies in midair andthen drops the drone 1710. The drone is attached to the less sturdy endportion of the GST. The GST consists of the tether segment 1708, whichis the less sturdy segment, and 1706, which is the sturdier segment.Both 1708 and 1706 are spooled inside the helicopter 1702. The droneflies to the target location 1714, which is at a certain floor of abuilding 1716. A person 1712 is at the target location 1714 to get holdof the drone 1710 and the GST. Once the person 1712 gets hold of thedrone 1710 and the end portion of the GST 1708, he starts pulling theGST so that the sturdier portion 1708 could be reached, which wouldallow a sturdy connection being established between the helicopter andthe target location.

FIG. 18 depicts an embodiment that has auto release mechanism for thetether to separate from the drone. When the drone needs to release thetether, a linear actuator as depicted in FIG. 18 moves to let the tethergo free. 1800 is one example of auto release mechanism and there are anumber of other possible ways to accomplish the auto releasefunctionality. The drone 1802 has a structure 1804 underneath its belly,which houses the linear actuator. The actuator is controlled by a microcontroller on board the drone. The moving arm or the thrust rod of theactuator is shown as 1806, which can move in two directions as depictedin the two arrows as in 1810. When the moving arm 1806 moves down, itmoves all the way down to the bottom of a small hole 1808, which issituated in the fix lower arm 1820 of the structure 1804. A tether 1812is first fixed in a tether terminator, which in the figure is the ringshaped terminator 1814. When the moving arm 1806 engages with the hole1808, an enclosure is formed by the moving arm 1806, upper arm 1818 andthe lower arm 1820, so that the tether terminator 1814 is locked insidethe enclosure. When the moving arm 1806 lifts and disengages the hole1808, an opening 328 is made to allow the tether terminator 1814 torelease from the opening 328 and be separate from the drone 1802.

When the tether is to be connected to the drone, the tether terminator1814 is inserted into the opening of the enclosure for the moving arm1806 to lock the ring, as shown in the direction 1816. The moving arm1806 moves down inside the ring 1812 and into the hole 1808, therebylocks the tether terminator 1814. The arm 1806 is also able to moveupward so that an opening is created between the moving arm 1806 and thelower arm 1820, which will allow the ring and the tether to go free.

In some embodiments, the structure 1804 is extendable downward like atelescopic antenna when the drone is in midair. This extension will givethe drone the ability to capture a tether in midair with the help of theactuator. It becomes an extendable hook with automated closing arm 1806.

The upper arm 1818 and the lower arm 1820 connect with each other at anangle between their respective longitudinal axes, as shown in 1822. Inorder for the tether terminator 1814 to exit the opening quickly, theangle is less than 270 degrees.

FIG. 19 depicts a drone being connected with a tether adjusting amirror's position in midair. 1900 illustrates the overall method ofmoving a heavy object which is largely supported by an airplane, ahelicopter or a balloon. Drone 1904 is connected to a tether 1910, whichis in turn connected to an object, in this case a mirror 1914. Themirror 1914 is lifted by a balloon 1902 through a cable 1908. In orderto adjust the mirror more accurately, another drone 1906 and anothertether 1912 being connected to the drone 1906 are used, and the tether1912 is connected to the mirror 1914. The balloon 1902 provides theheavy lifting needed by the mirror 1914, while the desired angle andposition of the mirror 1914 are adjusted by the drones 1904 and 1906.

The system is useful when there is a need to reflect laser beams inmidair. For example, some weapon system shoots laser beams at enemytarget, but due to the earth curvature, and the fact that a laser beamcannot bend its path, such laser is limited to target with line ofsight. This novel reflective system is able to reflect laser at analtitude to redirect the laser beam at enemy target out of the line ofsight. It is easy to see that the mirror could be replaced with otherobjects, such as a cutting tool, a weapon, a piece of communicationequipment, a reflective device, an energy source, and a solar panel. Forinstance, a high energy laser system could be carried by the balloon inmidair, and the drone could be used to direct the laser from the laserweapon at enemy targets. There is virtually no recoil force from such alaser weapon and that makes this laser system powerful. In addition thelaser is beamed down from an elevation which also makes it verydesirable in battlefield.

An air balloon or an aircraft is able to hang a piece of heavy equipmentwith a cable or a tether. But it is hard to adjust or control theposition and orientation of that piece of equipment because the tetheror the cable is flexible. A drone or a group of drones are able tocreate enough torque to accomplish just that.

There could be numerous other objects that could be used in the place ofthe mirror 1914 as illustrated in 1900. The tether 1908 used by theballoon 1902 is generally sturdier and heavier than the tether 1910connected directly to the drone 1904 and the tether 1912 connected todrone 1908. The tethers could be viewed as a variation of a GST.

The balloon could be replaced by a different type of aircraft such as ahelicopter, or a projectile. Another scenario is that the object 1914could be lifted by a crane, and the drone 1904 is used to tweak theposition of the object 1914. Even a heavy weight object 1914 could bemoved when it is suspended in midair by a drone, especially if themovement is rotating around an axis close to the center of the gravityof the object 1914. In most cases, the object 1914 weighs over 10pounds.

FIG. 20 depicts a drone being connected with a tether clearing out iceand snow accumulation with the help of another drone. The accumulationclearing action is captured in 2000. Snow and ice accumulation is awell-known hazard to overhead cables. The novel solution provided inFIG. 20 employs a drone 2002 and another drone 2004, connected by atether 2010. Two power line poles 2006 and 2008 support an overheadcable 2012. Snow and ice accumulation is shown in 2014. The drones 2002and 2004 move along the length of the cable 2012, so that the tether2010 could press against the accumulation and the cable 2012 and scrapeoff the accumulation 2014. The operation could be automated because thepath of the cable is known. It could also be monitored by the camerascarried by the drones 2002 and 2004.

In a slightly different version not illustrated here, the drone 2004could be replaced with a object providing weight, which would force thetether 2010 to bend at an angle at the point where the tether is incontact with the cable 2012, the drone 2002 could drag the tether 2010along the length of the cable 2012 to scrape off the accumulation.

Further, the scraping could be enhanced using an electrical heat wire orunit at the point of contact with the accumulation, provided the heat isunder a certain limit not to burn the cable.

FIG. 21 depicts a drone connected to a tether making patterns using thetether, with the help of another drone connected to the same tether.2100 illustrates the pair of connected drones making concerted movementsbetween two tall buildings 2108 and 2110 so that the tethers could formpatterns. Drone 2102 and drone 2104 are connected with a tether 2106.The tether could also be bundled with lighting element such as LED lightstrips. The drones 2102 and 2104 could be programmed to make complicatedand patterned movements. As a result of the movements of the drones 2102and 2104, the tether 2106 would form patterns or shapes, as well asbeing fixed by an object. In this case, drone 2102 flies around the twobuildings 2108 and 2110 several times; and then it flies between thetethers to form a letter CA′ as shown in 2112. In addition, the tetherscould be used to support the weight of an object, such as an object2114. To fix a tether to another object or another part of a tether, onetechnique is to let the drone fly around that object or that part of atether multiple times so that the tether wraps around that object or apart of a tether. A knot could be formed by the tether if the dronemoves in a preprogrammed path. If LED lights are bundled with the tetherand power source is provided, then the letter CA′ will be lit up as adecoration or public display. In this weaving operation, at least aportion of the tether is substantially fixed relative to the objects, inthis case are the buildings 2108 and 2110. Furthermore the drone couldmove around another potion of a tether or an object multiple times inplain or sophisticated patterns like knotting patterns, so that thetether could wrap around it to substantially fasten the tether to theobject of another portion of the tether.

FIG. 22 depicts a retractable tether and a power recharging scenario.2200 illustrates the recharging apparatus and method. The drone 2202 isin midair. The tether 2204 is either a conductive wire itself, or abundle of a conductive wire and a tether. The tether is retractable. Areel 2212 winds and unwinds the tether 2204. A motor 2214 enables thereel 2212 to spin around its axis in both directions as indicated by thearrows 2216. This allows the tether 2204 to extend or retract. The motor2214 is controllable by the computer device onboard the drone 2202. Thetether 2204 is connected to a rechargeable battery on board the drone2202, which is to be recharged. The other end of the tether and/or theconductive wire 2204 is connected to a recharging device 2206. The powerrecharging device 2206 could be as simple as a power plug, or could be ainductive recharging device which only requires the device 2206 to be atclose proximity to the charging station 2208, or it could be some otherrecharging device. Charging station 2208 provides the power source torecharge the batter in the drone 2202. The charging station 2208 couldbe equipped with power outlet or inductive charging mechanisms. Thecharging station could be ground based or could be based on in midair,supported directly or indirectly by another drone or another aircraft.If the charging station is airborne, then the recharging operation ofthe drone 2202 is analogous to refueling a fighter jet in mid air. Itcould provide the drone 2202 sustained ability of staying airborne.

Further the extendable and retractable tether 2204 may be connected toother devices in other embodiments. The benefits of having extendableand retractable tether is that the device being connected to the tether2204 could be stowed away when it is not needed. In addition, itprovides a means for the drone to exert force on the tether and theconnected device, which enables the apparatus capable of doing a varietyof jobs. One example is a tether connecting two drones each having aretractable and extendable devices installed. The retracting of thetether makes the two drones moving closer while the extending of thetether allows farther distance between them.

Further the retractable and extendable device could be used in additionto the automatic tether release mechanism described in thisspecification. The tether 2204 is connected to the tether terminator1814 in FIG. 18.

The tether could be connected to a weapon, a device emitting laser, areflective device, a power recharging device or a solar panel.

Please refer to FIG. 23. FIG. 23 depicts a gripping mechanism coupledwith a drone either directly or indirectly through a tether. 2300illustrates the details of the gripping mechanism, a drone coupleddirectly with the gripping mechanism, and a drone coupled with thegripping mechanism through a tether. The gripping mechanism 2306 enablesthe drone 2304 to get hold of an object and manipulate the object. Thegripping mechanism 2306 could be mounted on any side of the drone 2304,like up, down or sideway side of the drone 2304, sometimes with the helpof the mounting rod 2308, which could be in different length ororientation with respect to the drone 2304's body. FIG. 8 only shows onepossible mounting position for the gripping mechanism. Object 852 is tobe gripped or grabbed by the fingers 2328A and 2328B of the grippingmechanism 2306. In a different configuration, a drone 2338 is connectedto a gripping mechanism 2342 through a tether 2340. One advantage of atether 2340 versus a mounting rod 2308 is that a tether tends to weighless, and flexible, both contribute to the stability and maneuverabilityof the drone, especially in the case when the mounting rod 2308 is long.However, a tethered gripping mechanism is usually under the drone,unlike a rod which can be placed above or on the side of a drone.

A motor 2310 is mounted on the mounting rod 2308, the motor 2310 enablesthe gripping arm and fingers to rotate around its central axis 2330, inboth directions as shown in 2332. The ends of the guide rod 2314A and2314B are fastened to the frame end members 2312 and 2324, which isdirectly coupled to the motor 2310. When the motor 2310 is in operation,its torque is transferred to the frame end member 2312, which in turnmake the rest of the gripping mechanism rotate around its central axis2330, in both directions as shown in 2332. This rotating motion helpsthe gripping mechanism overcome possible resistance from a possibleattachment between the object being gripped and some other object. Forinstance, when the drone is used to pick fruits like apples from a tree,after an apple is being gripped by the gripping mechanism 2306, therotating motion 2332 around the central axis 2330 makes it easy for theapple to break from its stem.

The frame on which the actuator housing 2348 is installed comprises aframe end member 2312, another frame end member 2324, and two guide rail2314A and 2314B being parallel to each other. The guide rails 2314A and2314B are fastened to the frame end member 2312 and 2324, and areperpendicular to the two frame end members 2312 and 2324. The housing ofthe linear actuator 2348 is fastened to the frame end member 2324, whilethe thrust rod 2346 of the actuator is able to move along the centralaxis 2330. The top plate 2344 is joined to the end of the thrust rod2346. The top plate 2344 is further fastened to two moving tubes 2318Aand 2318B respectively. The two moving tubes 2318A and 2318B are fittedto the guide rod 2314A and 2314B, respectively, which can move in bothdirections as shown in 2316 along the guide rods 2314A and 2314B. Theends of the right gripping arm 2322A and the left gripping arm 2322B areconnected with the moving tubes 2318A and 2318B through rotatablecouplings 2320A and 2320B, respectively. The other ends of the rightgripping arm 2322A and the left gripping arm 2322B are connected to theright gripping finger 2328A and 2328B through rotatable coupling 2326 Aand 2326B respectively. The movement of the top plate 2344 away from theactuator housing 2348 makes the moving tubes 2318A and 2318B moveupward, away from the actuator housing 2348, along the guide rods 2314Aand 2314B respectively. That motion in turn causes the up ends of thegripping arms 2322A and 2322B to move upward because of the coupling2320A and 2320B, respectively; and causes the lower ends of the grippingarms 2322A and 2322B to move inward toward the central axis 2330,because of the couplings 2326A and 2326B, respectively. As a result ofthe inward movement of the gripping arms 2322A and 2322B, the grippingfingers 2328A and 2328B moves toward the central axis 2330, as shown indirection 2334. When the top plate 2344 moves down and toward theactuator housing 2348, the motions of the moving parts are reversed,resulting in the opening of the gripping fingers 2328A and 2328B, asshown in the direction of 2336. The two directions 2334 and 2336correspond to the gripping motion and releasing motion of the grippingmechanism respectively.

The gripping mechanism is one example of a type of device for removingan object from its original place. The embodiment of the presentinvention enables picking up an object, especially a small object under10 pounds from one place and place it somewhere else. It is useful incleaning animal waste on the streets, for instance. Of course there arenumerous applications that this type of embodiment could be used. Itmimics a human's hand capable of flying and being controlled by a humanor software.

In some other embodiments, there could be more gripping arms or grippingfingers. In addition, each gripping fingers could be move independentlyby using independent actuator. Such gripping mechanism would be ablebehave more or less like a human's hand and be able to perform amultitude of tasks a human's hand is capable of performing. There are anumber of ways to make the gripping mechanism dexterous that a personwith ordinary kill in the art would be able to implement.

Further, the camera on the drone could take pictures or videos. Themicrophone/loudspeaker device on the drone could also record the soundaround the work site. The information is sent to a human or a softwareapplication, which in turn analyzes and makes decisions on the nextmove. The control instructions are sent back to the drone and thegripping mechanism for the next move.

FIG. 24 depicts a drone being connected to a circular saw through atether. A saw is designed to separate an object by removing parts of theobject. The embodiment of the invention is depicted in 2400. A drone2402 is flying in midair, which has a tether 2404 tied to its body. Thetether 2404 may be conductive wire itself, or it could be a bundle of atether and a conductive wire. The wire sends power to the devicesconnected to the tether, such as a motor 2406 used for turning the reel2410, and a circular saw motor 2422. The reel 2410 is mounted on abridge handle 2412 which allows it to spin around its central axis asshown in 2408. The motor 2406 makes the reel 2410 spin in bothdirections as shown in 2408. The motor 2406 and the bridge handle 2412are mounted on a plate 2414. The reel motor 2406 is fastened to theplate 2414 through connector 2416. A conductive wire 2418 goes through ahole to supply power to the circular saw motor 2422. Alternatively abattery could be installed on the plate 2414 to supply power to the reelmotor 2406 and the saw motor 2422. The saw spindle 2420 is coupled tothe circular saw 2428, and its cutting teeth is shown in 2424. Thecircular saw spins in the direction as shown in 2426.

The tether 2404 could also help the tool 2428 to be positioned to thedesired location. For instance, the UAV 2402 could move back and forthin mid air and drag the tether 2404 so that the tool 2428 could bepositioned to the point it is should be. The movement of the UAV 2404could be controlled by human through viewing images from a cameraonboard the UAV 2404. Or the movement of UAV 2404 could be achieved byimage tracking. The image of the tool 2428 and the desired locationshould coincide. If there is discrepancy between the two, then thegeometric distance between then will be used as an input to guide theUAV to maneuver, so that the difference will shrink until it disappears.At that point, the tool 2428 is at the desired location.

Sometimes in order to counter the torque created by the sawing action ofthe saw 2428 and to have more precise cutting, a gripping mechanismsimilar to what's depicted in 800 of FIG. 8 is used in conjunction withthe saw mechanism. 2430 is an extendable and retractable rod like anantenna whose one end is coupled to the plate 2414 and the other end iscoupled to a gripping mechanism 2432. The gripping mechanism 2432 grabsthe object to be sawed and the saw 2428 further cuts the object. In someother embodiments, the gripping mechanism 2432 could be replaced withother temporary means for fixing the object to be sawed, such as a strapto strap around the object to be sawed. The saw 2428, the extending andretracting mechanism comprising 2406 and 2410 for the tether, thegripping mechanism 2432, and the extendable and retractable rod 2430could all be controlled by software, and all could be controlledremotely.

It is easy for those skilled in the art to replace the saw blade 2428and the saw motor 2422 with a different object removing mechanism, forinstance, a vacuum cleaner, a drill, a device comprising magnet orelectromagnet, an air blower, a grinder, a polisher or a combinationthereof. Many off the shelf products could be adapted appropriately forvarious embodiments of the present invention.

Further the tether could be replaced with a rigid member such as a rodor other types of structure to couple the drone with the object removingmechanism.

The reel motor 2406 and the circular saw motor 2422 are controlled bythe drone or remotely by wire or wirelessly. When the reel motor 2406makes the reel 2410 spin in one direction around the bridge handle 2412,the tether gets wound up which cause circular saw 2424 and 2422 to getcloser to the drone. If the reel motor 2406 makes the reel 2410 spin inanother direction, the portion of the tether 2404 between the drone 2402and the circular saw 2428 increases which extends the reach of thecircular saw 2428. The circular saw 2428 could be replaced with or beused in conjunction with other devices, such as a gripping tool asdepicted in FIG. 23, a device emitting laser, a power recharging deviceas depicted in FIG. 22, a weapon, a drilling tool, and lightingelements. For instance, a vacuum and a circular saw would enable theapparatus to cut and clean up the sawdust at the same time.

Another configuration involving a tether, a tool and a UAV is that thepower reel motor 2406 could be displaced inside the UAV 2402. One end ofthe tether 2404 could be secured to a tool such as a circular saw 2428.The power reel 2406 could be winding in both directions which results inthe movement of the saw 2428. The tether 2406 could be severed by acutting tool either secured on the UAV 2402 or the saw 2428, as desired.

FIG. 25A depicts a drone coupled with a welding device. Drone 2506 isfirst coupled with a gripping mechanism 2502, which is introduced inmore detail in FIG. 8, and the gripping mechanism is further coupledwith a welding device 2504. The welding device joins two objects thatare separate form the embodiment of the invention by heating and meltingthe parts of the two objects where the joining happens. There could bemany other devices that would achieve the purpose of joining twoobjects, such as a nail gun, an adhesive dispenser or stapler. Further apainting device could be coupled with the drone 2506 as well. The paintsprayed onto the surface of an object would join that object with thepaint, the paint being first in liquid form and then in solid form whendried. Further still, the gripping mechanism 2502 could be replaced withother type of handling mechanisms, or alternatively, the welding devicecould be coupled to the drone 2506 directly, or through a tether.

FIG. 25B depicts a drone coupled with an electromagnet. An electromagnetis a type of magnet in which the magnetic field is produced by anelectric current. The magnetic field disappears when the current isturned off. Electromagnets usually consist of a large number of closelyspaced turns of wire that create the magnetic field. The wire turns areoften wound around a magnetic core made from a ferromagnetic orferrimagnetic material such as iron; the magnetic core concentrates themagnetic flux and makes a more powerful magnet. A drone 2512 is coupledto an electromagnet 2510. An conductive wire 2508 connects the drone2512 and the electromagnet 2510 to supply the necessary electricalcurrent for the magnetic field to be generated. The electromagnet 2510is capable of pick up ferrous metals like iron and steel. The fact thatthe drone is able to fly to places sometimes hard to reach otherwisemakes this embodiment very useful in pickup metals. Further it could beused in conjunction with other embodiments of the invention to work inmanufacturing, repair and maintenance.

FIG. 25C depicts a drone coupled with a nail gun. A nail gun, nailgun ornailer is a type of tool used to drive nails into wood or some otherkind of material. It is usually driven by electromagnetism, compressedair (pneumatic), highly flammable gases such as butane or propane, or,for powder-actuated tools, a small explosive charge. Nail guns have inmany ways replaced hammers as tools of choice among builders. A drone2514 is coupled with a nailgun 2516 through fasteners 1017A and 1017B.The handle of the nail gun is shown in 2522 and the trigger is shown in2518. The nails come out of 1019. The battery housing is shown in 2520.The nail gun could be an existing nail gun with some adaptation forbeing used with a drone, or alternatively, the main components could beintegrated with a drone. This embodiment could be used to install roofs,which typically requires workers to be working on the roof. Working on aroof is sometimes dangerous and inefficient. With this embodiment,putting nails on roof could be easier. The drone could move anywhere onthe roof and reduce the danger posed to the workers if they have to bepresent on the roof. This embodiment shows an object joining mechanismjoining a first object, which is the roof, and a second object, which isthe shingles.

FIG. 25D depicts a drone coupled with a vacuum. A drone 2524 is coupledwith a vacuum 2530 through a tether 2526. The nozzle 2528 of the vacuum2530 picks up objects from a surface, i.e., removes an object from itsoriginal place. This embodiment could be useful for janitorial ormanufacturing purpose. The tether 2526 could be replaced with othermeans of coupling, such as a rod. The vacuum 2530 could be a readilyavailable commercial portable vacuum cleaner or could be integrated withthe drone, eliminating some housing or common components between thedrone and the vacuum. The vacuum sucks air from around an object so thatobject gains air lifting which makes it easy to be sucked into thevacuum cleaner. Further it is easy to see that the vacuum cleaner couldbe replaced with a blower, which blows air out or a nozzle instead ofsucking air from a nozzle in the vacuum case. The blower blows airaround an object and the object is prone to be removed from its originalplace.

Further the different tools could form any combination to carry out twoor more functions. For instance, a drill and a vacuum combined coulddrill a hole in wood and at the same time the drill dust could bevacuumed away by the vacuum cleaner. The drill and vacuum combinationcould be installed on a drone. Similar combinations are innumerable withmany types of tools specifically disclosed here and tools a person inthe art would easily come up with based on the specification.

Further, the control of the tools could be done remotely by a person orsoftware through communication modules carried by a drone. And a droneis typically equipped with camera, microphone and other types ofsensors, which send images, sounds and other information back remotelyto the controlling person or software. For instance, the nail gunembodiment sends images of the roof and the shingles to a controllingcenter remotely. A human or a software application analyzes the job siteand determine the force, speed and place when a nail is being put on theroof. The instructions are remotely sent back to the nailgun to carryout. The process could be further automated by programming the computeronboard the drone of the embodiment so that the drone could carry outthe actions autonomously, without relying on remote instructions.

FIG. 26 depicts a drone, a tether extension and retraction mechanism,and a tether releasing mechanism combined. A drone 2602 has an actuatorhousing 2612 attached to its body. The actuator's thrust rod 2616 movesin two directions up and down as shown in 2618. When the thrust rod 2616moves downward and engages a hole 2626 in the lower fixed arm 2622, anenclosure is formed by the thrust rod 2616, the lower fixed arm 2622,the fixed upper arm 2610, and the actuator housing 2612, therefore atether terminator 2614 is locked inside the enclosure. Then the thrustrod 2616 moves upward, and opening 2620 is created which would allow thetether terminator 2614 to disengage from the opening 2620 and separatefrom the drone. A motor 2624 is fitted on the upper arm 2610, and a reel2608 is coupled to the motor 2624. The reel can revolve freely aroundthe upper arm 2608 in the directions depicted in 2606 as a resulting ofthe motor 2624's work. A tether 2604 is connected to the tetherterminator 2614.

The reel 2608's revolving action causes the tether 2604 to extend andretract. In the case the tether is fully disengaged from the reel, theauto releasing mechanism described earlier enables the tether toseparate from the drone completely. Both the extending and retractingmechanism, and the auto releasing mechanism are controlled by the drone2602 or remotely.

FIG. 27A depicts a UAV with anti crash airbag before the airbag isdeployed. The UAV 2702 has at least one airbag 2704 fitted to its body.A compressed air canister 2706 is fastened to the body of the UAV 2702.The opening of the canister 2706 is directly leading to the airbag airintake 2708. In some embodiments, the compressed air canister 2706 couldbe replaced by other means for inflating an airbag, such as explosives.

FIG. 27B depicts a UAV with anti crash airbag after the airbag isdeployed. The airbag 2704 is being deployed. The air cushion affords theUAV 2702 to cause less damage after it loses control and crashes intoground. Please note there is one airbag depicted in the figure, howevermany airbags of a variety of shapes could be used for protectingdifferent parts of the UAV's impact.

FIG. 27C depicts the flowchart on how a UAV with anti crash airbag isdeployed. Step 2720 collects the data from sensors input or from theremote instructions. The sensors could include a plurality ofaccelerometers to detect downward unwanted movement, altitude meter todetect the change of altitude and other sensors. These sensorsindividually or collectively could determine whether or not the UAV isin imminent danger of crashing. Human input or computer input could alsoactivate the deployment of the airbags.

Step 2722 determines if data suggest an imminent crash. If the answer isyes, then the airbag is deployed in step 2724. The actual deployment ofthe airbag should take less than one second.

The particular embodiments disclosed above are illustrative only, as theembodiments may be modified and practiced in different but equivalentmanners apparent to those skilled in the art having the benefit of theteachings herein. It is therefore evident that the particularembodiments disclosed above may be altered or modified, and all suchvariations are considered within the scope and spirit of theapplication. Accordingly, the protection sought herein is as set forthin the description. Although the present embodiments are shown above,they are not limited to just these embodiments, but are amenable tovarious changes and modifications without departing from the spiritthereof.

What is claimed is:
 1. A detection and rescue system, comprising: anunmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) having: a body with a plurality of flightrotary assemblies secured thereto; a release mechanism secured to abottom surface of the body; and a flotation device removably secured tothe release mechanism; a portable notification device removably securedto a distressed swimmer, the notification device having: a wirelesstransmitter for sending wireless signals to the UAV; wherein the UAVreceives the wireless signals from the portable notification device anddeploys the flotation device to the location of the user; and whereinthe release mechanism is a release arm configured to engage with theflotation device.
 2. The system of claim 1, wherein the UAV isautonomously controlled; and wherein the wireless signals comprise GPSgeo-coordinate information of a location of the distressed swimmer. 3.The system of claim 1, the flotation device having a plurality of panelspivotally attached to and folded onto each other.
 4. The system of claim1, wherein the flotation device is an inflatable device being displacedinside a housing.
 5. The system of claim 1, the flotation devicecomprising: an inflatable balloon secured to a water propeller; whereinthe inflatable balloon provides buoyancy while the water propellerprovides trust.
 6. The system of claim 5, further comprising: acompressed gas canister secured to the housing and in gaseouscommunication with the balloon.
 7. The system of claim 1, furthercomprising: a ship configured to carry the UAV.
 8. The system of claim7, the ship further comprising: a plurality of cameras carried by theship and configured to capture images of the distressed swimmer.
 9. Thesystem of claim 1, the system further comprising: a tow line secured tothe flotation device; wherein the tow line is configured to tow theflotation device and the distressed swimmer to a designation location.10. The system of claim 1, the notification device further comprising: aplurality of sensors for detecting drowning danger by measuring acombination of parameters from the user body and from the environment.11. The system of claim 1, the UAV further comprising: a camera; and aloudspeaker; wherein the camera is configured to capture images of thedistressed swimmer; and wherein the loudspeaker is configured to relayaudible messages to the distressed swimmer.
 12. A method for detecting adistressed swimmer and for providing rescue, comprising: providing thesystem of claim 1; determining if the distressed swimmer needsassistance; deploying a flotation device to an area proximate to thedistressed swimmer; determining the relative position between the bodyparts of the distressed swimmer and the water surface with a hydrostaticsensor secured to the distressed swimmer; and determining if thedistressed swimmer is making movements consistent with a swimmer underdistress with an accelerometer secured to the distressed swimmer. 13.The method of claim 12, further comprising: capturing images of thedistressed swimmer with a camera secured to the UAV; and communicatingwith the distressed swimmer via a microphone or a loudspeaker.
 14. Themethod of claim 12, further comprising: towing the distressed swimmer toa designated location via a tow line secured to the flotation device.15. A combination of a ship with a detection and rescue system,comprising: a system, comprising: an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV)having: a body with a plurality of flight rotary assemblies securedthereto; a release mechanism secured to a bottom surface of the body;and a flotation device removably secured to the release mechanism; and aship, comprising: a takeoff location for the UAV; a plurality ofcameras; wherein the plurality of cameras is configured to captureimages around the perimeter of the ship; and wherein the UAV isactivated and sent to a location proximate to the distressed swimmer ifcaptured by the plurality of cameras.
 16. The combination of claim 15,further comprising: a portable notification device secured to a user,the notification device having: a wireless transmitter for sendingwireless signals to notify the UAV; wherein the UAV receives thewireless signals from the portable notification device and deploys theflotation device to the location of the user.
 17. The combination ofclaim 15, further comprising: a tow cable secured to the flotationdevice; wherein the tow cable is configured to tow the distressedswimmer to safety.